Paul Brown is the Chair of Public Health; and the Director of the Health Sciences Research Institute at UC Merced. Originally from California, he received a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in Economics, has had academic positions at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, The University of Auckland (New Zealand), the Auckland University of Technology, and the University of North Carolina. In addition, he has worked for several governmental agencies, including the Pennsylvania Resource Council (non-profit environmental organization), the Ministry of Health in New Zealand, and Environment Waikato (government organization in charge of resource management).

His research interests include a number of areas relevant to health services research and public health. Much of his work evaluates the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving health for vulnerable populations, including people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury or stroke, the frail elderly, and disabled members of the community. Other research uses discrete choice experiments to examine patient preferences and health care decision making. He works closely with health care providers and funders, including local health departments (LHDs) and regional healthcare providers. His work tends to involve multidisciplinary teams, and he has collaborations with research teams at a number of universities, including the Auckland University of Technology, the National University of Colombia in Bogota, the University of North Carolina, the University of San Francisco at Fresno, and the University of Auckland.

Want to learn more or join the research lab? If you would like to learn more about public health and health services research at UC Merced, contact pbrown3@ucmerced.edu